Page 70 - the-prince

CHAPTER XI. CONCERNING

ECCLESIASTICAL

PRINCIPALITIES

t only remains now to speak of ecclesiastical principal-
Iities, touching which all difficulties are prior to getting
possession, because they are acquired either by capacity or
good fortune, and they can be held without either; for they
are sustained by the ancient ordinances of religion, which
are so all-powerful, and of such a character that the prin-
cipalities may be held no matter how their princes behave
and live. These princes alone have states and do not defend
them; and they have subjects and do not rule them; and the
states, although unguarded, are not taken from them, and
the subjects, although not ruled, do not care, and they have
neither the desire nor the ability to alienate themselves.
Such principalities only are secure and happy. But being
upheld by powers, to which the human mind cannot reach,
I shall speak no more of them, because, being exalted and
maintained by God, it would be the act of a presumptuous
and rash man to discuss them.
Nevertheless, if any one should ask of me how comes it
that the Church has attained such greatness in temporal
power, seeing that from Alexander backwards the Italian